This invention relates to vehicle security systems, and more particularly, to a vehicle security system including a protective cover incorporating an alarm unit.
Many vehicle owners use a protective cover to protect their vehicle when the vehicle is not being used and as a deterrent to theft of the vehicle and its contents. Protective covers can be made from canvas or other materials and may cover substantially the entire vehicle when the vehicle is an automobile or motorcycle, or only an exposed area of the vehicle when the vehicle is a boat. Protective covers typically are held in place with an elastic shock cord that extends along the periphery of the cover for automobile or motorcycle covers, or by snaps for boat covers. Consequently, protective covers do little to deter an intruder from removing the protective cover and taking the cover or the vehicle or its contents.
Accordingly, protective covers that include a security system have been proposed for producing an alarm indication to alert the owner of an intrusion, to scare a would-be thief away from the vehicle, and/or to alert others in the area that an attempted break-in is occurring. Many arrangements for detecting the movement or removal of a protective cover from a vehicle have been developed in the prior art. Typically, these systems employ switches that are attached to the vehicle and operated in response to movement or removal of the protective cover.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,698,615, issued to Wilber, discloses an alarm system for detecting movement of a protective cover for a boat. The alarm system includes a plurality of spring-biased switches that are mounted within the boat. Each switch is held in an open condition by a split edge clamp member to which is attached a cord. The cord, in turn, is attached to the protective cover when the cover is deployed over the boat. When the switch has been coupled to the protective cover by the cord, moving the protective cover pulls on the cord which, in turn, pulls the clamp member from the spring-biased switch. The switch then closes and activates an alarm device. This alarm system requires attachment of a plurality of brackets to the boat. Also, the alarm system requires a wire loop that extends around the periphery of the boat and all of the switches must be connected to this loop. Deploying the protective cover requires the user to reach beneath the cover and secure each cord to the cover.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,821,025, issued to Ross, Sr., discloses a vehicle cover alarm apparatus including a spring-biased switch for operating an alarm in response to removal of a protective cover from a vehicle. The switch is maintained in the open condition by a cable which extends through a hole in the side of the vehicle and is removably attached by a clip to the deployed protective cover on the outside of the vehicle. Removing the cover releases the clip, allowing the spring-biased switch to activate an alarm device. Because the switch is mounted on the inside of the vehicle, an undesirable hole must be drilled through the vehicle for the cable to pass through. In addition, this alarm apparatus requires attachment of brackets to the vehicle. Moreover, this alarm apparatus is only capable of being used with vehicles which already have an alarm system.